Beverage dispensers traditionally mix a syrup and/or other types of concentrates with a diluent such water or carbonated water to produce a beverage. The syrup or other type of concentrate generally is placed in a tank, a bag-in-box, or other type of container. The size of these containers, however, limits the variety of the different beverages and beverage options available to the consumer at the beverage dispenser, i.e., there is generally only so much room to position the ingredient containers about the beverage dispenser.
One improvement has been to separate the beverage components and then concentrate the several components even further. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,370 concerns a “Tri-Mix Sugar Based Dispensing System.” This patent describes a beverage dispensing system that separates the highly concentrated flavorings from the sweetener and the diluent. This separation allows for the creation of numerous beverage options using several flavor modules and one universal sweetener. U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,370 is incorporated herein by reference.
The concept of separation was taken even further in commonly owned U.S. Publication No. 2007/0205221, entitled “Beverage Dispensing System”, filed on Mar. 6, 2006. This application describes concentrating the flavors, the colors, the sweeteners, and other additives into micro-ingredients, i.e., concentrations of about ten to one (10:1) or much higher. The beverage dispenser then combines these micro-ingredients with various types of macro-ingredients, such as sweeteners, and with diluents to form a beverage. U.S. Publication No. 2007/0205221 is incorporated herein by reference.
One of the issues with the micro-ingredients is how to provide an adequate package to transport the micro-ingredients to the beverage dispenser and to maintain the micro-ingredients while in the beverage dispenser given that relatively small amounts that may be used. Such a package preferably would provide adequate protection against degradation of the micro-ingredients while being efficient in term of space, volume, and cost.